The Lady of the House of Love

I'm glad it was pointed out from the offset that this story has links to Sleeping Beauty and Dracula because after the recent revelation of the Snow Child linking to Snow White, I'm starting to realise how hopeless I am at spotting the obvious.

I wish I'd re-read this story again before I'd written the timed essay about how Carter re-invents the gothic traditions as it links in really well with a point I was trying to make about how Carter emphasizes the tragedy of gothic figures (like the 'Lady of the House of Love') in a way that other gothic writers don't tend to do that much e.g. Mina sees the flash of relief on Dracula's face when he is killed but Dracula's loneliness and tragedy isn't really focused on at all - Carter makes the tragedy of some of her gothic figures very apparent...The Lady of the House of Love, for example, is spoken of as being trapped in a 'baleful posthumous existence'. Carter, it seems, is attempting to evoke sympathy in the reader in a way that isn't the norm with regard to the presentation of such characters as vampires - we're never really led to sympathise with Dracula - unlike the Lady of the House of Love, his loneliness and entrapment aren't focused on.

I thought the image of the caged lark was a striking one as the fact that 'she likes to hear it announce that it cannot escape', to me, implies that although she's given up hope of being released from her 'trap', she likes to hear the evidence of the lark's hope...she is silent, however, the lark cries out as if for help...in the hope that it will be set free. You can interpret it in different ways, of course, but that's how I saw it.

Other interesting concepts within The Lady of the House of Love, I thought, were the 'hair falling down like tears' (reinforcing the 'woman of metal' image...simulation of tears) and the links to other stories within the collection and within the gothic genre. Strong links, for example, to Dracula (Vlad the Impaler, Vampires) and also lots of typically gothic features and themes - impurity and 'diseases of imagination' attributed to supernatural creatures and vampires, supernatural vs. religion conflict e.t.c.

I like this story as I think the different aspects and images within it can be interpreted in lots of different ways and lots of things are implied subtly...although there are very overtly gothic ideas (vampire lying in an open coffin), there are other ideas that are more subtle...e.g. the implication behind the Lady 'noticing nothing' of the 'disintegration' that she is unphased by material status and has deeper, more meaningful desires. Also, the description of her that becomes increasingly more animalistic in its language...'fingernails' are referred to then 'claws'. The chandelier 'heavy with dust' also, I thought, could be a metaphor for the Lady's mind or heart...heavy with knowledge, saddness, loneliness e.t.c.

Love the imagery in this story and am really interested in all the symbolism associated with the tarot cards that we spoke about it class.